1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a processing apparatus for processing an object, such as semiconductor wafers, by a processing liquid.
2. Description of the Related Art
A semiconductor device fabricating process uses a wafer cleaning system that cleans semiconductor wafers (hereinafter referred to simply as xe2x80x9cwafersxe2x80x9d) with a chemical liquid or pure water to clean the wafers of contaminants including organic contaminants and metallic impurities, and a wafer drying system that removes liquid drops from wafers by using an inert gas, such as N2 gas, or a volatile, highly hydrophilic IPA vapor (isopropyl alcohol vapor) to dry the wafers. There are known Batch-type cleaning systems and batch-type drying systems that process a plurality of wafers in a cleaning chamber and in a drying chamber, respectively.
Wafer cleaning systems are disclosed in the U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,784,797 and 5,678,320. In the wafer cleaning systems, a wafer chuck supported on a wafer carrying arm is moved from a side in front of a wafer cleaning chamber (the front side of a rotor) through a doorway formed in a front wall of the wafer cleaning chamber and facing the wafer carrying arm into the wafer cleaning chamber, the wafers held by the wafer chuck are transferred to the rotor and the wafers are transferred from the rotor to the wafer chuck.
A known wafer cleaning section 200 shown in FIG. 16 has a cylindrical vessel 202 defining a cleaning chamber 201. A rotor 205 capable of holding wafers W and of rotation can be moved through an opening 203 formed in the front end of the cylindrical vessel 202 into and out of the cylindrical vessel 202. With the rotor 205 disposed outside the cylindrical vessel 202, the wafers W can be transferred between the rotor 205 and the gripping members 209a and 209b of the carrying arm. In FIG. 16, indicated at 207 is a driving mechanism that moves the rotor 205 axially and rotates the same, at 208 is a rotary shaft, at 204 is a lid for closing the opening 203 of the cylindrical vessel 202 and at 206 are holding members included in the rotor 205.
The wafer cleaning systems disclosed in the U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,784,797 and 5,678,320 need to secure a space sufficient for the wafer chuck to operate in the cleaning chamber and hence the size of the cleaning chamber must be increased accordingly. Since the wafer chuck operates in a limited space in the cleaning chamber, the operation of the wafer chuck must be carefully controlled so that the wafer chuck may not collide against the wall of the cleaning vessel. Consequently, the wafer carrying arm must execute complicated operations and a control program for controlling the wafer carrying arm is inevitably complicated.
Although the wafer chuck of the known wafer cleaning system 200 shown in FIG. 16 does not need to operate in a limited space, the wafer chuck must be controlled so that the gripping members 209a and 209b may not collide against the holding members 206 of the rotor 205. Consequently, a complicated control program is necessary for controlling the wafer chuck.
To solve such problems, the applicant of the present invention patent application proposed a cleaning system and filed U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/635,465 (corresponding to Japanese Patent Application No. Hei 11-326084). This previously proposed cleaning system is formed in small dimensions, has a movable enclosing elements defining a processing chamber, and is capable of facilitating control and efficiently carrying out processes. This cleaning system discharges a processing liquid through a vertical wall 26b (FIG. 15) on the front side of a processing chamber. However, this previously proposed cleaning system causes new problems including taking long time for separating the atmosphere in the processing chamber from the ambient atmosphere and for replacing wafers.
It is an object of the present invention to incorporate further improvements into the enclosing element and the draining system of the apparatus proposed in co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/634,465.
To achieve the object, the present invention provides with a processing apparatus for processing an object, such as a semiconductor wafer, with processing liquid. The apparatus includes: a holder that holds the object; an enclosing element capable of moving between a first position where the enclosing element surrounds the holder and forms a closed processing chamber in which the object is processed and a second position where the enclosing element is withdrawn from around the holder, the enclosing element having a first end on a side of the first position and a second end on a side of the second position, and the enclosing element being provided with a drain port, through which the processing liquid is drained, at a lowermost portion of the second end of the enclosing element; a drain pipe connected to the drain port; and a nozzle that supplies the processing liquid into the processing chamber.
The drain pipe may be configured so that it moves together with the enclosing element. In this case, preferably, the processing apparatus further includes a second drain pipe capable of receiving the processing liquid drained through the first drain pipe connected to the drain port, wherein the positional relationship between the first drain pipe and the second drain pipe changes according to a movement of the enclosing element.
The present invention also provides with a processing apparatus for processing an object, such as a semiconductor wafer, with a processing liquid, which includes an enclosing element capable of forming a closed processing chamber in which the object is processed, the enclosing element having a first end and a second end opposed each other, the enclosing element having a bottom portion sloped down at an angle of not less than 3 degree with respect to a horizontal plane, from the first end toward the second end.
The present invention further provides with a processing apparatus for processing an object, such as a semiconductor wafer, with a processing liquid, which includes a holder that holds the object; an enclosing element capable of surrounding the holder and forming a closed processing chamber in which the object is processed; and a nozzle that supplies a processing liquid into the processing chamber, wherein, as viewed in a direction of a center axis of the disk when the object is held by the holder, the nozzle is arranged in the processing chamber in a region above a horizontal diametrical line passing a center of the disk and outside of a vertical line passing intersection of the horizontal diametrical line and outer periphery of the object.